Pheaturing Bob Geldof From The Boomtown Rats

 

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you? The gym should be a safe place for people to work out without fear of being judged or harassed, but for many young women, it carries the same frustrations as most public spaces. This is to say, it's not uncommon for women to get solicited or approached for sex or dating while trying to work out. While there are rare exceptions where two people consensually decide to flirt at a gym, anyone approaching a fellow gym-goer should not only be prepared for the possibility of rejection, but be ready to walk away without making a scene. After getting approached by a man while stretching for a video, Avrey Ovard decided to show her TikTok followers yet another example of a man using the gym as a place to pick up women. In the video, the man can be seen asking whether Avrey is filming, when she reveals she's making a YouTube video he remarks that it's cool. Five minutes later, after exiting the door to the physical therapy office, he comes back to Avrey and urges her to remove her headphones before telling her about his physical therapy issues. He then moves on to ask if he can get her number to take her out for dinner. Now exasperated with the exchange, Avrey (who is 19-years-old) responds to the man (who she estimated to be around 40) by telling him she's too young for him. In a quick response, he responds by saying he's "too rich" for her before walking off. The video quickly went viral, and a lot of people remarked on how badly the man responded to rejection. A few commenters applauded her for specifically calling out the age difference, noting that many men don't get called out for exclusively hitting on women half their age. However, a few people found her tactic either too rude, or confusing. Regardless of what other people think about how Avrey handled the situation, her response clearly got her the personal space she needed. 

Carrie Underwood is getting roasted on Twitter for liking a tweet from Matt Walsh protesting mask mandates at schools. Comparing mask mandates to child abuse and Munchausen Syndrome By-Proxy, Walsh's speech refers to children in masks as rabid dogs with "muzzles." He notes that teaching children that "the air is toxic" and "everyone around them is sick" causes "psychological damage." Walsh claims that masks are "dirt-soaked rags," and "symbolic security blankets" that cause their own health effects separate from anything coronavirus-related. Needless to say, this speech on its own is wildly divisive as masks have been recommended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by the CDC. However, "American Idol" and country music star, Carrie Underwood's, endorsement of Walsh's speech sparked further disappointment. Of course, Walsh also noticed... 

At least we still have Dolly! 

It looks like the wait for the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer is almost over. A new report reveals that the highly anticipated teaser for the Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel will finally be released online this week. There have been several speculations about the Spider-Man 3 trailer and when it will be released. Although some believe that it will be one of the trailers that will accompany Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings on its theatrical run, there are other reports stating it will be dropped at Sony's panel during CinemaCon 2021 this week. The unfortunate thing about the second update is that the trailer will not be released online. Interestingly, there might be some good news after all. ComicBookMovie reports that the Spider-Man 3 trailer will be released online right after it is unveiled at CinemaCon 2021 today. This means that the teaser will dropped anytime between 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. PT today. It's a hopeful update considering that there were concerns that Spider-Man 3 will not get an official trailer. However, it is important to point out that Sony or Marvel have not yet confirmed the teaser's release. With that in mind, it's best to take this with a grain of salt although we're keeping an eye out for the trailer at CinemaCon 2021. 

Scarlett Johansson is refusing to back down from her Black Widow lawsuit. The Avengers: Endgame star has fired back at Disney after the greatest company to work for ever filed a motion to move to arbitration. It was previously reported that Disney had filed a motion to move Johansson's lawsuit to arbitration. The motion states that the suit excluded Marvel Studios on purpose although Johansson's contract was made with Marvel. The motion is not a surprise at all and Johansson may have been expecting it. Deadline shares a statement from the Black Widow actress via her lawyer John Berlinski. “After initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack against Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now, predictably, trying to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration,” Berlinski said. He further explains why the Disney is filing the motion. “Why is Disney so afraid of litigating this case in public?” Berlinski added. “Because it knows that Marvel’s promises to give Black Widow a typical theatrical release ‘like its other films’ had everything to do with guaranteeing that Disney wouldn’t cannibalize box office receipts in order to boost Disney+ subscriptions. Yet that is exactly what happened... and we look forward to presenting the overwhelming evidence that proves it.” It's clear that Johansson is determined to push through with the lawsuit despite Disney's attempts to silence her. Needless to say, this legal war could be drawn out for a long time. Stay tuned for more updates on this story. 

Tim Tebow’s run at tight end lasted all but one game. The former Heisman Winner and all-time collegiate football great turned failed NFL QB turned failed baseball player is now a failed tight end. The Jacksonville Jaguars made roster moves last Monday, and included in that was the release of Tebow, whom joined former coach Urban Meyer and the Jags in attempt to revive his NFL career at the tight end position. We need a "30 for 30" on Tim Tebow. This man played with Aaron Hernandez, won a Heisman, turned into a pastor, won an NFL playoff game, went to be an analyst and play baseball for 6 years and then come back to play tight end for the Jaguars. 

Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this album...

Maybe not. I like to go on Twitter and look up certain words and one of those words is "Foghat." This is a tweet I saw quite a bit ago...

I was told if I go to Walmart I'd see some odd sights. I didn't believe it until I saw this...

Pink is the color of... hahaha. If I had a TARDIS I would go to Beautiful Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, in 1951.  

The subject of whether or not it's "appropriate" for women to breastfeed their babies in public places is still surprisingly divisive. Many offices, airports and other shared spaces have designated special rooms or areas for women who seek privacy while breastfeeding, but the act itself still shouldn't offend anyone. If a tiny piece of fabric covers a woman's nipples in a bikini or a crop top then you can call it a fun and flirty outfit, but if a baby is covering her nipple so she can feed her child, then she's scandalizing all the passengers on the train? If a mother taking care of her child in public is upsetting for your precious eyes to behold, then it's up to you to adjust your location or avert your gaze to make yourself comfortable. Asking a mother to leave a public space because you can't handle the sight of nature won't win you too many friends at the coffee shop. So, when a conflicted man decided to consult the Phile about whether or not he was wrong to ask a woman breastfeeding in public to relocate, I decided to help deem a verdict. 

"Am I wrong for asking a women to breastfeed somewhere else? I work a job that allows a very good amount of time for a lunch break. So much in fact that I’ll regularly head down to a cafe (I really don’t know if it's a cafe but it’s about pretty small, so yeah) and sit and have something while with the time I have for the break. Keep in mind, for some reason this place is almost always busy. It just so happened that today a woman came inside with a baby and it was so busy that it looked like there was only like 2 open seats available, one of which happened to be the sit across from my small table. This women asked if she can sit at the table. The other table was under the air conditioner so understandable. I said yes because what harm would it have done otherwise? So a little bit goes by and her baby starts crying, so she takes a breast out and starts breastfeeding. Obviously I’m just avoiding all eye contact but it got so uncomfortable that I ended up asking if she might be able to see if she can sit at the other table. I’m just trying to sit here, drink this cup of coffee, finish reading in my portfolio and leave. The woman looked sorry and really just said she couldn’t and the baby was already eating (feeding? idk) so I just downed the coffee, and started to leave. A few people looked at me like I was a douche and it’s been bothering me. I know it’s a natural thing for babies and moms and that there’s nothing I can do. I wasn’t going to try and force her away so I left. Was it too far to ask if she may have sat at the other table? Idk I feel like I was an asshole thinking about it now. But I just didn’t know what to say when a random women is breastfeeding 3 feet away. Was I the asshole here?" Yes, 1000% yes. This woman probably got two hours of sleep last night, has a crushingly awful mix of hormones in her body, she tried to escape and do ONE adult thing for herself, only to have to feed her crying baby and then you give her a hard time? I get that not everyone grows up comfortable around bodies and nudity but, bro. Breastfeeding is 0% sexual. And if it really bothered you, you should’ve moved to the less desirable spot. Please do better next time... she deserves empathy, which was decidedly not what you gave her. “But I just didn’t know what to say when a random woman is breastfeeding 3 feet away.” Nothing. Say nothing. So, there you have it! This man was completely wrong here, and if he couldn't handle being so close to this woman who was simply being a mother in public, then he should've just left. Good luck, everyone! If you have a problem you'd like my opinion on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. 

On French omelettes...

Okay, let's have a live look at Port Jefferson, shall we?

A rainy day there. I had a feeling. 

Hahahaha. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. 

This is bloody cool. Today's guest is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s, who achieved popularity at the time of the punk rock movement. As a fundraiser, he organized the charity supergroup Band Aid and the concerts Live Aid and Live 8, and co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?," one of the best-selling singles of all time. The Boomtown Rats latest album "Citizens of Boomtown" is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. Please welcome to the Phile... Bob Geldof. 

Me: Hello, sir, it's such an honor to have you here on the Phile with only one month to go. How are you?  

Bob: Good, dude. 

Me: So, when you hear some of your old songs like "I Don't Like Mondays" do you like hearing them? 

Bob: I get fed up with this. 

Me: What? Why? 

Bob: Because it's not out of character lyrically or emotionally. The problem would be if I'm specifically known for a singular song that people think that I'm just sort of a band that plays piano tunes and that's rather limiting. I do like the tune though and it maintains its relevance. it doesn't have to be 1979. If I do it now and I do do it I don't demur, I don't think oh, God, this song, the very opposite. As soon as I hear that glissando at the beginning it's almost like a mantra that gets me into some meditative state. As soon as I hear the opening I'm back in the zone. That zone is the zone of the now because it's not about something that happened in 1979, it could be a fallacious as school shooting at a school two weeks ago unfortunately.  

Me: I loved the song when I first heard it, but it is a sad song, about a real shooting at a school. Isn't it crazy that it's still relevant? 

Bob: Look, I'm not forcing this interview interaction but the reality is that as soon as we regrouped, the first thing I said was that I'm not going to do nostalgia. If this just sounds old and if I'm bored by these songs, if they have no resonance for the now, then I'm not going to do it. "I Don't Like Monday's" was a case in point, as soon as they started it I wasn't back then, I was very much in the present. Our first number one, "Rat Trap," I wrote it in an abattoir where I was working. I wrote it about the hopelessness of the people there... less the hopelessness and inevitable death of the animals, but the sort of abattoir of dreams that this place was. If I sing it now, I'm not in the abattoir, I'm talking about the hopelessness of being young now and the conditions of things here today. When I sing "Someone's Looking at You," I'm not talking about that time, I'm talking about Google and Facebook tracking you, following you, listening to you, always on, packaging you and your every nuance, or joke, or friends, or musical choice, or food selection. Packaging you up and selling you to a third party who will exploit you and your preferences. So "Someone's Looking at You" becomes a new rage, a new anger. The songs outlive their time and I'm glad of that. 

Me: Okay, so, why did you guys first form as a band, Bob? I can't see you guys sitting around a conservatory wondering if you can play music together. 

Bob: No, that just wasn't available. I mean what was available, push in perspective with what was happening elsewhere no New York 1975 is bankrupt, social services have stopped, they could barely walk in the streets, the garbage isn't being collected, they can't drive in the streets and the Mayor pleads to the U.S. President for help and Gerald Ford literally and famously said, "Drop dead, New York." Well, of course out of that will come something from people denied a future. So we had the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, Talking Heads, etc. Exact same time in London inflation is 27% in the U.K. economy, zero economy and we had sharp kids like Johnny Rotten, Johnny Lydon and Joe Strummer saying I don't think so. And in Ireland at the exact same time the Civil War, 3,700 people more 600 people murdered, utterly corrupt government, a corrupt Church that's busily abusing the children of its parishioners and hushing it up and a zero economy. Of course there's going to be an eruption amongst this claustrophobia of sudden this suffocation of silence that enveloped the country just turned out to be us. 

Me: So, where did the name of the band, the Boomtown Rats came from? 

Bob: It was named after Woody Guthrie's old gang. 

Me: How did you handle getting popular and becoming famous with the Boomtown Rats? 

Bob: We embraced it hugely. We used the platform that fame gave us to talk about the things that prompted us in the first place. 

Me: It wasn't uncomfortable? 

Bob: Stardom is uncomfortable, celebrity is a nothing. I was never interested in stardom, as you can see. I'm a crap star, if anyone considers me a star. I'm just not good at that stuff. I'm not good at red carpets, it's mortifying. I'm not good at the limousine thing. You know, people waving, banging and looking in the window... I feel a fraud. It's the fraud syndrome. But the fame thing I'd always wanted. I said it at the beginning in the first interview I did. I said I wanted it for the platform it will give me to talk about the things that bother me. 

Me: You're not good at the limousine thing? What does that mean? You don't like riding limos? 

Bob: If it shows up and my mate shows up in a beat up Honda Prius I'm gonna take the limousine, dude. 

Me: Hahaha. Okay, so, what was one of your first things you sang about or talked about when you became famous? 

Bob: I used to work out in Vancouver on an underground paper there and Paul Watson, the great hero of Greenpeace had got his trawler, and he used to go up to the Arctic Circle to stop the Japanese and Russian whalers and these brave people out of Vancouver would put themselves in rubber dinghies and put themselves across in front of the whales and in fact the Japanese whalers would try to harpoon them and subsequently when we got to be a big pop band I could talk in Trafalgar Square about this now. In fact in the song, "Someone's Looking At You" there's a line "you saw me there in the Square when I was shooting my mouth off about saving some fish." And then I questioned myself, I said could that be construed as a radical view or some Liberals wish. I knew purposely perfectly well what I was doing. And then I did a lot of the early amnesty gigs and the later ones and then sang on the Sun City record, etc, etc. So you see the point of rock and roll was always about that for me, it was always about the possibility of change. 

Me: So, what made you want to be this activist? 

Bob: It was the suggestion of being a kid and listening to what was then the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Beats, etc. It was they sang to that and they sang about the possibility have changed the inevitability, the derivability of change. The world was not immutable, it was in fact plastic and could be molded and shaped towards the desire we wanted to go in. 

Me: Okay, so, let's talk about Live Aid. I loved Live Aid, and even have it on DVD. What a great fucking day that was. What do you remember about that day? 

Bob: I remember being the pop singer with my band and been able to relax into the familiar. 

Me: What do you mean? 

Bob: Up to then it was all fear, tension, organizational continuum and a lot of work. Moments, rock and roll moments stay with me. Just before I hadn't slept night, hadn't slept for many nights, I was sacred stiff. 

Me: What were you scared of? 

Bob: Failure. Lots of things. I had no contracts with anyone. No contacts with the stadiums. Would they let us in and would anyone show up? Seventeen hours of the Boomtown Rats might be a bit much even for for me. But personal failure on such I mean quite literally, this sounds silly, don't take it the wrong way but literally in a planetary level and then failure for all those people, who'd given up or put rise many, many amnesties, Pete Townshend having to make up with Roger Daltry for a couple of minutes. Paul McCartney coming back after six years, not really wanting, he wasn't prepared to do live. Eric Clapton giving up three days in Vegas saying that the hell with it, I'm coming. Led Zeppelin reforming, Black Sabbath reforming, The Beach Boys reforming, The Who reforming. Queen almost dead in the water and suddenly we saw this great band emerged like a butterfly from Christmas. U2 having huge fights to decide to stage believing they'd ended their career in fact it tipped them over the top. So those things stuck in my head but really the greatest fear was failing those in whose name we were doing it and who would never know we were doing this and had never heard of any of these people. That would have been a crime more than a failure. So I was very afraid and that day my back was killing me because I guess I wasn't sleeping and I was running around all over the place. People were forgetting what it was about because the music and the romance of the day and people still talk about it. I was lying down on a flight case and David Bowie walked over and said, "Turn over" and I turned over and is the big secret... David Bowie could have been a great masseuse. He started massaging me and that's a great rock and roll moment. The guys in the Rats came over to me and said come on, we're on. I went on and suddenly it was okay, I was in my job. But what I remember is the romance that everybody else felt hitting me suddenly and the romance for me was that anyone I'd ever met in my life, my dad and my relationship with him was at best fraught was there. Anyone I possibly said hello to just in passing was watching and there were people at this moment watching this now and I needed to pause to take this in, the enormity of this thing. 

Me: That was a huge snapshot you must've took, right? 

Bob: Just to accept it and reconcile myself with it. That is was something other and I pulled up sharp because suddenly the words of "I Don't Like Monday's" I was coming up to the line which was "the lesson today is how to die" and suddenly just the mad coincidence of of everything pull me up sharp and I sang "the lesson today his how to die" and I stopped dead and my hand was gesturing and it just stayed up in the air and there was just this massive roar of I don't know, comprehension or something from the crowd. And I've got to remember this, I looked to my right and tracked fright along the whole length and breadth of Wembley Stadium and when my eyes came back to me I just okay, I'll move on now. That was when it sort of hit me what it was. 

Me: Did it do what you wanted? 

Bob: Completely, It's the weirdest thing to be able to say that for once in our lives something worked. It wasn't that day. It's amazing and you're steeped in music and history is that people forget Live 8. 

Me: I have that on DVD as well. The Barenaked Ladies performed in that. Haha. So, last year on the Christmas entry I had Midge Ure on the Phile and we talked about Band Aid. What was your thinking on doing that? 

Bob: Live 8 was the culmination of the project that began with the Christmas song. I see the TV one night, I'm disgusted and ashamed, I react in the only way that's viable for me, I'll write a tune with my mate Midge and we'd think we'd be out of there by Christmas. But this become a phenomenon, the Americans call and say would I come over and do this track "USA for Africa" and it occurs to me we can unite this whole idea into a concert and then we're going but except the concert makes millions. But it was the realization that famine is to die of want in a world of surpluses, economically illiterate, intellectually observe and morally repulsive because they don't die of hunger from lack of food, they die from lack of money, you won't die if there's a famine in America, food will be bought, food will be sent if we run out, we'd go to there supermarket. To change economics, you must engage with the agents of change, which, like it or not, you've got to talk to the politicians. We had a huge lobby: 1.2 billion people, 95 per cent of the television sets on Earth watched that concert. Politics is just numbers. They can't ignore it. It took 20 years of trawling around the chancelleries of the world, and as that Live Aid generation came to power... Clinton, Blair, Brown, Schröder, Cameron, Osborne... the doors opened and they caved. So things do change, but that instrument of change is no longer plausible. Rock and roll was the central spine of our culture for 50 years. The web has broken down the world into individualism and that's easy for authoritarians to use. 

Me: Do you think Live Aid could happen again? 

Bob: No, it wasn't English, it was pop. We now know in 1956 Elvis, Little Richard, they didn't understand but there was a reaction and a cultural revolution. The Beatles and the Stones and Dylan were pretty aware. The Rolling Stones refusal to be deferential of the Beatles with their positive triple yes yeah, yeah, yeah. Dylan mapping out the roots, things are changing, dude, get out of the way. So I come in that period, I take everything from that and when my generation happened and things have to change again we use this medium, this minor art form but a very powerful medium turns out that the world is listening to this stuff now. That won't happen again and it won't really influence the politics of its time. In fact, at Gleneagles in 2005 the day after Live 8 when they agreed to the stuff we demanded that same day the new world was introduced to 21st century came home to roost when Isis killed 58 people in the busses and tubes of London and the Prime Minister Blaire has to leave the negotiation table for the poorest in the world to deal with the massacre, he came back and the deal was pushed through. So we had the end of there world of political cooperation consensus and compromise. That won't happen again, not in this current world. We had the introduction of a new barbaric world. The politicians of today are avatars of that barbarism. 

Me: You don't think the Internet could help? 

Bob: The logic of the World Wide Web, this synaptic membrane that wraps itself around the planet, presupposes a hive society. We thought that it would animate an economy. In fact, it sped it up beyond our understanding so the whole thing collapses with greed, puts millions out of work, puts thousands into suicide, wars erupt as a result, millions are on the move to find new work or to escape war, and we throw up our walls and our barriers. We've reduced ourselves. The 21st century is reductionist and it's using the great tool of reductionism, the Internet, and we need to know how to use this thing, which is the most powerful tool ever invented. So you get these old men being angry again and they make a record that sounds like that. 

Me: With the new record nothing has changed, you're singing about the same things you were singing about all those years ago. Do you think you're cynical? 

Bob: I can't be cynical. 

Me: Why not? 

Bob: Because it worked. 

Me: How are you not cynical now? 

Bob: My avatars told me go down this route, dude. We change things, you can do it. Okay, I'll try. We had to be a little more empirical. I remember one of the things in the paper after Live Aid, the promise of rock and roll has been fulfilled. So John and his great naïveté saying all you need is love turns out probably right, turns out bop a lob, bop a bam boom brilliant, not English, what is that? I don't know but everybody gets it. So all those things came home to roost. 

Me: I still don't understand how your anger doesn't turn into cynicism, Bob. 

Bob: Something like Live Aid can't happen now, but that doesn't stop me raging against the dying of the light. That doesn't stop me acknowledging that all generations fail and some fail more spectacularly than others. It doesn't mean that someone can't be Greta Thunberg and stand in front of their school silently and just say no. That's still there. The possibility to steer your world in the direction you need to live in, that's there, but it ain't this cyber wanking into the digital void. It isn't this is really shit, that's nothing. It is a 10 billion digital petition is meaningless to authority. 

Me: You met Mark Zuckerberg, you think he knows that? 

Bob: I didn't meet Zuckerberg. 

Me: Oh, I've seen you talk about him by first name... 

Bob: Yeah, I called him Mark because he's Mark because we have him in our back pocket. 

Me: Oh. So, what do you think of Facebook? 

Bob: It's all luck. There were loads of Facebook's around, he just made it through because he wanted to meet girls. Because he had the Ivy League pretensions and everyone thought okay, I'd love to be in the Ivy League. They do it in advertising all there time. He stumbled upon this and he built this huge device and he has to be congratulated for it, but he's gone down a route that is very similar to the industrialists of the 19th century. They are monopolies, no person should have all that wealth. 

Me: Bob, thanks so much for being on the Phile. This was so different than I thought it would be. I love the new album as well. 

Bob: Cheers, man.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Bon Geldof for a very deep and unusual interview. The Phile will be back on Wednesday with actor Jonathan Freeman. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...